


It's nature! Shit happens!

by OhGoshOhJeez



Series: The ole' switcheroo [1]
Category: Pacific Rim (Movies), Torchwood
Genre: AU, Owen switches places with Hermann
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 13:30:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14545776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhGoshOhJeez/pseuds/OhGoshOhJeez
Summary: Now he was staring up, up, high as his eyes trailed over the massive hunks of metal before him, perfectly and sleekly designed, beautiful and horrifyingRobots.Giant, massive, fucking terrifying amazing robots.“Bloody hell..!” He mumbled, his mouth dry.The place, the room he was in was huge, filled with people, bustling and busy, some working on the machines, some scrambling to pick up papers and bits of research off the cold, cement floor. All chattering amongst themselves, the robots seeming as normal as anything to them.Where in the hell was he?





	It's nature! Shit happens!

Owen couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

He had somehow found a rift, a small crack in time and space and he had managed to stumble right through it. Lucky him.

Now he was staring up, up, high as his eyes trailed over the massive hunks of metal before him, perfectly and sleekly designed, beautiful and horrifying.

Robots.

Giant, massive, fucking terrifying amazing robots.

“Bloody hell..!” He mumbled, his mouth dry.

The place, the room he was in was huge, filled with people, bustling and busy, some working on the machines, some scrambling to pick up papers and bits of research off the cold, cement floor. All chattering amongst themselves, the robots seeming as normal as anything to them.

Where in the hell was he? 

His thoughts were interrupted by someone knocking right into him, shouting.

“Okay, okay, but if you’d just look at the results of the test, then you’d understand! I mean- it’s it’s awesome! You just have to-!”

The person who bumped into him said, not even bothering to say sorry, clearly too wrapped up in whatever was going on.

“Dr. Geiszler, I have no time for these experiments of yours if they aren’t beneficial to the task at hand!” Another, deeper voice said, and Owen spun around to see the men who were arguing.

One was a short, nerdy-looking man, with big square glasses atop a round nose. He had a baby face and was carrying...some sort of tube with a green liquid inside.

The other man was tall, intimidating, with badges on a dark blue blazer. He looked like a war general. Handsome, Owen thought.

“But-!”

“No buts! Get back to work and stop wasting your time, and my time with these tests.”

The smaller man sighed, looking sadly at his test tube. His eyes trailed from the floor up to Owen, and his eyes lit up.

“Hermann! Buddy, where have you been? I’ve been looking all over!” He said, marching over to Owen.

Owen looked around himself, wondering if he was talking to someone behind him.

“Don’t try to get away from this, Herms, because you were gone I had to do  _ two  _ times the work!”

“Er- I think you have the wrong person, mate, I’m-”

“Don’t try to play dumb with me, Mr. Gottleib, your scientific grandpa ass can’t weasel out of it this time.”

Before he knew it, he was being dragged by the arm across the room and down a hallway. It was much quieter in this part of the building.

“C’mon, I have something to show ya!”

The nerdy man opened two large doors with his foot and walked backwards into the room, smiling at Owen.

The room was big, not as big as the one with the robots, but still pretty massive. It looked like some kind of lab, with tech much more primitive than that of the Torchwood base. There were alien-looking hunks of flesh floating in green transparent goo in large glass tanks, wired up to machinery that seemed to monitor it. There was a chalkboard that covered the length of the back wall, with mathematical scribblings and some doodles of large monsters. It seemed...almost familiar. The feeling of walking into something incomprehensible for the first time. It felt like when he first joined Torchwood.

“Herm, buddy? Still with me? You’ve kinda got your head in the clouds today, is the age catching up with you at last?” The man joked, patting him roughly on the back, leading him to the center of the room.

“Now! We know that Kaiju skin mites can’t survive without being soaked in ammonia first, but! I managed to salvage this little guy from a category four Kaiju.”

He opened up a large case atop a metal table, looking at Owen with wide, excited eyes.

It was a wriggling, grey monster which resembled a large woodlouse, covered in the same green liquid as before. 

Owen stepped back with a start.

“I know, I know, you told me not to bring these little guys into the lab after last time, but look!” He pointed to the tiny feet of the being.

“I managed to swap out the ammonia and keep it alive without it! How awesome is that?!” 

He looked to Owen for approval.

“I-...Bloody hell.”

“It’s amazing, right?!” Newt said, peeling off his latex gloves and snapping the box shut again.

“Now I didn’t really know what Kaiju mites ate but it seemed to like the PBJ sandwich I gave it.”

Owen said nothing, seemingly in shock. Not sure how to process anything that was happening. 

“...Herm, buddy...You okay?” The man said, gently. 

“Why do you keep calling me that?” Owen said. 

“Oh!” The man fixed his glasses, a sheepish look on his face. “Sorry, I forgot that you hated that nickname.”

“No! Bloody hell, my name is not Hermann!” Owen said, pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing.

“Uhh...Are you sick? Eating enough? You’re not doing that thing again where you work and don’t eat again, are you?”

“No! I’m...I’m not Hermann, my name is Doctor Owen Harper, from Torchwood, Cambridge.” 

“Torch...Wood?” The man stepped closer to him, putting a hand on Owen’s shoulder.

“...Dude, do you even know who I am?” He said, gently.

“...No.”

The man looked taken aback, his shocked expression soon replaced with a sad one.

“It’s me! Newt! I- I don’t understand, do you not remember me?”

“It’s not that I don’t remember, I’m just not the man you think I am,” Owen said, sternly. “I’m sorry.”

The man, Newt, apparently, gazed at him for a moment, before bursting out laughing.

“Aw, Herm, you really had me going there for a sec! It was good, It really was!”

“I’m not joking. I stepped through a rift in time and space and I ended up here.”

Newt sighed.

“Okay, fine, if you’re really from somewhere else, tell me something about your world. About torch- thingy, whatever it was.”

“Torchwood. It’s a secret group of agents who keep aliens and alien technology from the public. We quarantine it and keep it under wraps.”

“Yeah, right.”

“It’s the truth.”

The seriousness of Hermann’s, or, Owen’s face made Newt feel unsettled.

“Okay. Say, I did believe you, say you’re- you’re a secret agent from another universe…” Newt started, resting his hand on the metal table.

“What do we do about it?”

Owen thought for a moment, considering his options in this situation.

“I have absolutely no idea.”


End file.
